RJ02-Reflective Journal Entry 3- Formative Assessment - Due Saturday, March 5,2011
Develop an activity that you can use to provide formative feedback. Describe this activity, upload it, and link it to this entry.
Describe the concept that is difficult to learn or the misconception that this activity addresses.
Provide a link in your description to the appropriate GSE.
Explain how your activity allows you to assess your students' understanding, as well as the feedback that you will provide to help them correct their thinking.
My inquiry activity deals with the topic of electricity. The GSE covered is linked here: PS2_p3. After introducing electricity with powerpoint notes, the students are arranged in 6 different groups of 4-5 students each. Each group is assigned a station to start at. At each station, the group reads the instructions, finds the appropriate part of the data sheet to write on, and follows the instructions. Some stations use the laptops to explore simulations dealing with electricity. Other stations require students to use inquiry and create an experiment. Scaffolding is important in this activity because some students will have trouble in choosing a question to explore. The teacher can have some questions on hand in case this occurs. Each station provides different materials for the students to experiment with. For example, the station with balloons allows students to use the balloons, glass rod, rabbit fur, and soda cans, to develop a hypothesis, develop a procedure, and actually conduct the experiment to get some results. After every group rotates through every station, the class should re-group and begin a discussion about the various experiments conducted at each station. Not every group explored the same question so it is a good idea to hold a discussion following the activity.
Students misunderstand that electricity is the flow of subatomic particles, or electrons. They don't really think much into but need to understand how important it is that electricity exists. Another big misconception is when you lose an electron, you become negative, and when you gain an electron, you become positive. Students think that losing something causes a net negative, but when you lose a negatively charged particle, you are then overall positively charged. To correct this misconception, I had pieces of paper with protons and pieces of paper with electrons drawn on them. I had 6 students come up and hold either a proton or electron. At first, we had an equal number of protons and electrons. Then I had one electron sit down. I had the students tell me if I had more positive or negative particles, and reinforced that we lost an electron so we became positive. Then I started neutral, and had one electron join. Again, I had the students tell me if I had more positive or negative particles and reinforced that we gained an electron so we became negative. This was another misconception: Objects with different charges can attract or repel (++ or -- repel) (+- or -+ attract). To change this, I repeatedly quoted "opposites attract, likes repel" and the simulations reinforced this concept.
This activity allows me to assess their understanding of electricity because I made them write their experiments and the answers to the simulations on their data sheet (Webquest and Stations documents below). Because the simulations had definite correct answers, I can check their data sheets to make sure they obtained the correct answers. In the inquiry activity, I assess their understanding by discussing their experiments with them afterwards. If they had results that didn't make sense based on the concepts of electricity, I tried the experiment again and tried to fix the misunderstanding that was created by those faulty results. I used feedback during the discussion and told students if their experiments were inquisitive or needed some more critical thinking behind them.
RJ02-Reflective Journal Entry 3- Formative Assessment - Due Saturday, March 5,2011
My inquiry activity deals with the topic of electricity. The GSE covered is linked here: PS2_p3. After introducing electricity with powerpoint notes, the students are arranged in 6 different groups of 4-5 students each. Each group is assigned a station to start at. At each station, the group reads the instructions, finds the appropriate part of the data sheet to write on, and follows the instructions. Some stations use the laptops to explore simulations dealing with electricity. Other stations require students to use inquiry and create an experiment. Scaffolding is important in this activity because some students will have trouble in choosing a question to explore. The teacher can have some questions on hand in case this occurs. Each station provides different materials for the students to experiment with. For example, the station with balloons allows students to use the balloons, glass rod, rabbit fur, and soda cans, to develop a hypothesis, develop a procedure, and actually conduct the experiment to get some results. After every group rotates through every station, the class should re-group and begin a discussion about the various experiments conducted at each station. Not every group explored the same question so it is a good idea to hold a discussion following the activity.
Students misunderstand that electricity is the flow of subatomic particles, or electrons. They don't really think much into but need to understand how important it is that electricity exists. Another big misconception is when you lose an electron, you become negative, and when you gain an electron, you become positive. Students think that losing something causes a net negative, but when you lose a negatively charged particle, you are then overall positively charged. To correct this misconception, I had pieces of paper with protons and pieces of paper with electrons drawn on them. I had 6 students come up and hold either a proton or electron. At first, we had an equal number of protons and electrons. Then I had one electron sit down. I had the students tell me if I had more positive or negative particles, and reinforced that we lost an electron so we became positive. Then I started neutral, and had one electron join. Again, I had the students tell me if I had more positive or negative particles and reinforced that we gained an electron so we became negative. This was another misconception: Objects with different charges can attract or repel (++ or -- repel) (+- or -+ attract). To change this, I repeatedly quoted "opposites attract, likes repel" and the simulations reinforced this concept.
This activity allows me to assess their understanding of electricity because I made them write their experiments and the answers to the simulations on their data sheet (Webquest and Stations documents below). Because the simulations had definite correct answers, I can check their data sheets to make sure they obtained the correct answers. In the inquiry activity, I assess their understanding by discussing their experiments with them afterwards. If they had results that didn't make sense based on the concepts of electricity, I tried the experiment again and tried to fix the misunderstanding that was created by those faulty results. I used feedback during the discussion and told students if their experiments were inquisitive or needed some more critical thinking behind them.